Jackie Thompson

John Albert "Fat Jackie" Thompson (13 November 1963-) was an Ulster Defense Association leader during The Troubles.

Biography
John Albert Thompson was born in Belfast, County Antrim, Northern Ireland on 13 November 1963 to a family of sweet shop owners. He gained his nickname because he ate much of his parents' candy stock, and he joined a racist skinhead gang that included Johnny Adair, Samy McCrory, Donald Hodgen, and James Millar while he was young. The gang joined the Ulster Defense Association during the 1980s, and their gang became an important active service unit in its UDA company. In 1992, he attempted to assassinate Provisional IRA leaders Brian Gillen and Martin Lynch, leading to him being sent to Maze Prison. Adair gave Thompson the ability to carry out "kneecappings" and other extrajudicial punishments against people in the Shankhill Road area of Belfast, and he became the new Brigadier of the UDA after Adair was forced into exile in 2003. He would remain a leader of the UDA for years.